This story in this is book is about one of the most dynamic entrepreneurs in modern French history. The book examines Pierre-François Tubeuf's contribution to the development of industry in France. ...
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This story in this is book is about one of the most dynamic entrepreneurs in modern French history. The book examines Pierre-François Tubeuf's contribution to the development of industry in France. The book explores the relationship between seigneurial, proto-industrial, and modern forms of capitalism in the Cévennes region of south-eastern France in the 18th century, and demonstrates the international scope of proto-industrialization. It unravels the complex problems associated with the impact of the French Revolution on the processes of modern French capitalism, and traces the responses of a wide variety of individuals, including Tubeuf and his greatest rival, the Maréchal de Castries. The book examines the epic struggle of these two powerful men for control of the rich coal mines of the region, and their legacy to succeeding generations.Less

The Advent of Modern Capitalism in France, 1770–1840 : The Contribution of Pierre-François Tubeuf

Gwynne Lewis

Published in print: 1993-03-25

This story in this is book is about one of the most dynamic entrepreneurs in modern French history. The book examines Pierre-François Tubeuf's contribution to the development of industry in France. The book explores the relationship between seigneurial, proto-industrial, and modern forms of capitalism in the Cévennes region of south-eastern France in the 18th century, and demonstrates the international scope of proto-industrialization. It unravels the complex problems associated with the impact of the French Revolution on the processes of modern French capitalism, and traces the responses of a wide variety of individuals, including Tubeuf and his greatest rival, the Maréchal de Castries. The book examines the epic struggle of these two powerful men for control of the rich coal mines of the region, and their legacy to succeeding generations.

Should businessmen who commit fraud go to prison? This question has been asked repeatedly since 2008; it was also raised in nineteenth-century Britain, when the spread of corporate capitalism created ...
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Should businessmen who commit fraud go to prison? This question has been asked repeatedly since 2008; it was also raised in nineteenth-century Britain, when the spread of corporate capitalism created enormous new opportunities for dishonesty. Historians have presented Victorian Britain as a haven for white-collar criminals, beneficiaries of a prejudiced criminal justice system which only dealt harshly with offences by the poor. This book challenges these beliefs. Based on an unparalleled sample of legal cases—many examined here for the first time—it presents a radical new interpretation of the relationship between capitalism and the law. Initially, there were no criminal sanctions against publishing false prospectuses, concealing losses in balance sheets, and even misappropriating company money. But parliament became convinced of the need to criminalize these practices to protect the culture of stock market investment on which mid-Victorian prosperity increasingly rested. Persuading judges to play along was harder, with many invoking the principle of caveat emptor to exonerate defendants. But by the end of the century, successful prosecutions of company executives were commonplace. These trials performed multiple functions. They stabilized confidence in times of crisis. They dramatized the class blindness of the law. And they were increasingly seen as essential as faith in a self-regulating economy ebbed. The criminalization of fraud therefore has far-reaching implications for our understanding of nineteenth-century Britain. It also has relevance today in light of the ongoing economic crisis and the issues it raises regarding business ethics and the role of the state.Less

Boardroom Scandal : The Criminalization of Company Fraud in Nineteenth-Century Britain

James Taylor

Published in print: 2013-04-25

Should businessmen who commit fraud go to prison? This question has been asked repeatedly since 2008; it was also raised in nineteenth-century Britain, when the spread of corporate capitalism created enormous new opportunities for dishonesty. Historians have presented Victorian Britain as a haven for white-collar criminals, beneficiaries of a prejudiced criminal justice system which only dealt harshly with offences by the poor. This book challenges these beliefs. Based on an unparalleled sample of legal cases—many examined here for the first time—it presents a radical new interpretation of the relationship between capitalism and the law. Initially, there were no criminal sanctions against publishing false prospectuses, concealing losses in balance sheets, and even misappropriating company money. But parliament became convinced of the need to criminalize these practices to protect the culture of stock market investment on which mid-Victorian prosperity increasingly rested. Persuading judges to play along was harder, with many invoking the principle of caveat emptor to exonerate defendants. But by the end of the century, successful prosecutions of company executives were commonplace. These trials performed multiple functions. They stabilized confidence in times of crisis. They dramatized the class blindness of the law. And they were increasingly seen as essential as faith in a self-regulating economy ebbed. The criminalization of fraud therefore has far-reaching implications for our understanding of nineteenth-century Britain. It also has relevance today in light of the ongoing economic crisis and the issues it raises regarding business ethics and the role of the state.

At the beginning of World War II, the United States and Mexico launched the bracero program, a series of labor agreements that brought Mexican men to work temporarily in U.S. agricultural fields. ...
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At the beginning of World War II, the United States and Mexico launched the bracero program, a series of labor agreements that brought Mexican men to work temporarily in U.S. agricultural fields. This book asks why these temporary migrants provoked so much concern and anxiety in the United States and what the Mexican government expected to gain in participating in the program. It reveals the fashioning of a U.S.–Mexican transnational world, a world created through the interactions, negotiations, and struggles of the program's principal protagonists including Mexican and U.S. state actors, labor activists, growers, and bracero migrants. The book argues that braceros became racialized foreigners, Mexican citizens, workers, and transnational subjects as they moved between U.S. and Mexican national spaces. Drawing on oral histories, ethnographic fieldwork, and documentary evidence, it links the often unconnected themes of exploitation, development, the rise of consumer cultures, and gendered class and race formation to show why those with connections beyond the nation have historically provoked suspicion, anxiety, and retaliatory political policies.Less

Braceros : Migrant Citizens and Transnational Subjects in the Postwar United States and Mexico

Deborah Cohen

Published in print: 2011-02-15

At the beginning of World War II, the United States and Mexico launched the bracero program, a series of labor agreements that brought Mexican men to work temporarily in U.S. agricultural fields. This book asks why these temporary migrants provoked so much concern and anxiety in the United States and what the Mexican government expected to gain in participating in the program. It reveals the fashioning of a U.S.–Mexican transnational world, a world created through the interactions, negotiations, and struggles of the program's principal protagonists including Mexican and U.S. state actors, labor activists, growers, and bracero migrants. The book argues that braceros became racialized foreigners, Mexican citizens, workers, and transnational subjects as they moved between U.S. and Mexican national spaces. Drawing on oral histories, ethnographic fieldwork, and documentary evidence, it links the often unconnected themes of exploitation, development, the rise of consumer cultures, and gendered class and race formation to show why those with connections beyond the nation have historically provoked suspicion, anxiety, and retaliatory political policies.

In recent decades, Tokyo, London, and New York have been the sites of credit bubbles of historically unprecedented magnitude. Central bankers have enjoyed almost unparalleled power and autonomy. They ...
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In recent decades, Tokyo, London, and New York have been the sites of credit bubbles of historically unprecedented magnitude. Central bankers have enjoyed almost unparalleled power and autonomy. They have cooperated to construct and preserve towering structures of debt, reshaping relations of power and ownership around the world. This book explores how this financialized form of globalism took shape a century ago, when Tokyo joined London and New York as a major financial center. This book shows that close cooperation between central banks began along an unexpected axis, between London and Tokyo, around the year 1900, with the Bank of England's secret use of large Bank of Japan funds to intervene in the London markets. Central-bank cooperation became multilateral during World War I—the moment when Japan first emerged as a creditor country. In 1919 and 1920, as Japan, Great Britain, and the United States adopted deflation policies, the results of cooperation were realized in the world's first globally coordinated program of monetary policy. It was also in 1920 that Wall Street bankers moved to establish closer ties with Tokyo. The text tells the story of how the first age of central-bank power and pride ended in the disaster of the Great Depression, when a rush for gold brought the system crashing down. In all of this, we see also the quiet but surprisingly central place of Japan. We see it again today, in the way that Japan has unwillingly led the world into a new age of post-bubble economics.Less

Central Banks and Gold : How Tokyo, London, and New York Shaped the Modern World

Simon James BythewayMark Metzler

Published in print: 2016-11-16

In recent decades, Tokyo, London, and New York have been the sites of credit bubbles of historically unprecedented magnitude. Central bankers have enjoyed almost unparalleled power and autonomy. They have cooperated to construct and preserve towering structures of debt, reshaping relations of power and ownership around the world. This book explores how this financialized form of globalism took shape a century ago, when Tokyo joined London and New York as a major financial center. This book shows that close cooperation between central banks began along an unexpected axis, between London and Tokyo, around the year 1900, with the Bank of England's secret use of large Bank of Japan funds to intervene in the London markets. Central-bank cooperation became multilateral during World War I—the moment when Japan first emerged as a creditor country. In 1919 and 1920, as Japan, Great Britain, and the United States adopted deflation policies, the results of cooperation were realized in the world's first globally coordinated program of monetary policy. It was also in 1920 that Wall Street bankers moved to establish closer ties with Tokyo. The text tells the story of how the first age of central-bank power and pride ended in the disaster of the Great Depression, when a rush for gold brought the system crashing down. In all of this, we see also the quiet but surprisingly central place of Japan. We see it again today, in the way that Japan has unwillingly led the world into a new age of post-bubble economics.

This is a biography of William McChesney Martin Jr. (1906–1998), the first paid president of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the chairman of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) under Presidents ...
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This is a biography of William McChesney Martin Jr. (1906–1998), the first paid president of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the chairman of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) under Presidents Harry S. Truman to Richard Nixon. The extent of Martin's influence on the course of American economic history was significant: arguably he has done more to strengthen and reform the nation's most important financial institutions than has any other individual. This book recounts Martin's life story, and explains his lasting impact on the NYSE and the Fed, both troubled institutions that he transformed. It provides an inside look at the economic deliberations of five presidential administrations, and describes Martin's battles to bring about ethical and intelligent regulation of U.S. financial markets. Martin's experiences shed light not only on the evolution of the American financial system but also on critical issues that confront the system today.Less

Chairman of the Fed : William McChesney Martin Jr., and the Creation of the Modern American Financial System

Robert P. Bremner

Published in print: 2004-11-10

This is a biography of William McChesney Martin Jr. (1906–1998), the first paid president of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the chairman of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) under Presidents Harry S. Truman to Richard Nixon. The extent of Martin's influence on the course of American economic history was significant: arguably he has done more to strengthen and reform the nation's most important financial institutions than has any other individual. This book recounts Martin's life story, and explains his lasting impact on the NYSE and the Fed, both troubled institutions that he transformed. It provides an inside look at the economic deliberations of five presidential administrations, and describes Martin's battles to bring about ethical and intelligent regulation of U.S. financial markets. Martin's experiences shed light not only on the evolution of the American financial system but also on critical issues that confront the system today.

Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have come to enjoy an era of rising material abundance. Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, ...
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Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have come to enjoy an era of rising material abundance. Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, addiction, mental instability, crime, obesity, inequality, economic insecurity, and declining trust. This book argues that well-being has lagged behind affluence in these societies, because they present an environment in which consistent choices are difficult to achieve over different time ranges and in which the capacity for personal and social commitment is undermined by the flow of novelty. The book's approach draws on economics and social science, makes use of the latest cognitive research, and provides a detailed and reasoned critique of modern consumer society, especially the assumption that freedom of choice necessarily maximizes individual and social well-being. The book falls into three parts. Part one analyzes the ways in which economic resources map on to human welfare, why choice is so intractable, and how commitment to people and institutions is sustained. It argues that choice is constrained by prior obligation and reciprocity. The second section then applies these conceptual arguments to comparative empirical studies of advertising, of eating and obesity, and of the production and acquisition of appliances and automobiles. Finally, in part three, the book investigates social and personal relations in the USA and Britain, including inter-personal regard, the rewards and reversals of status, the social and psychological costs of inequality, and the challenges posed to heterosexual love and to parenthood by the rise of affluence.Less

The Challenge of Affluence

Avner Offer

Published in print: 2007-11-01

Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have come to enjoy an era of rising material abundance. Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, addiction, mental instability, crime, obesity, inequality, economic insecurity, and declining trust. This book argues that well-being has lagged behind affluence in these societies, because they present an environment in which consistent choices are difficult to achieve over different time ranges and in which the capacity for personal and social commitment is undermined by the flow of novelty. The book's approach draws on economics and social science, makes use of the latest cognitive research, and provides a detailed and reasoned critique of modern consumer society, especially the assumption that freedom of choice necessarily maximizes individual and social well-being. The book falls into three parts. Part one analyzes the ways in which economic resources map on to human welfare, why choice is so intractable, and how commitment to people and institutions is sustained. It argues that choice is constrained by prior obligation and reciprocity. The second section then applies these conceptual arguments to comparative empirical studies of advertising, of eating and obesity, and of the production and acquisition of appliances and automobiles. Finally, in part three, the book investigates social and personal relations in the USA and Britain, including inter-personal regard, the rewards and reversals of status, the social and psychological costs of inequality, and the challenges posed to heterosexual love and to parenthood by the rise of affluence.

This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a ...
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This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a wide range of historical settings. These include ‘state interference’, voluntary associations, economic decision-making, social and economic planning, the ‘bourgeois public sphere’, civil society in wartime, the ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ of women, and relations between the state, the voluntary sector, and individual citizens. The contributions suggest that the sharp distinction between civil society and the state, common in much continental thought, was of only limited application in a British context. They show how past understandings of the term were often very different from (even in some respects the exact opposite of) those held today, arguing that it makes more sense to understand civil society as a phenomenon that varies between different cultures and periods, rather than a universally applicable set of principles and procedures.Less

Civil Society in British History : Ideas, Identities, Institutions

Published in print: 2003-11-20

This book explores the many different strands in the language of civil society from the 16th to the 20th centuries. Through a series of case-studies it investigates the applicability of the term to a wide range of historical settings. These include ‘state interference’, voluntary associations, economic decision-making, social and economic planning, the ‘bourgeois public sphere’, civil society in wartime, the ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ of women, and relations between the state, the voluntary sector, and individual citizens. The contributions suggest that the sharp distinction between civil society and the state, common in much continental thought, was of only limited application in a British context. They show how past understandings of the term were often very different from (even in some respects the exact opposite of) those held today, arguing that it makes more sense to understand civil society as a phenomenon that varies between different cultures and periods, rather than a universally applicable set of principles and procedures.

Between the Great War and Pearl Harbor, conservative labor leaders declared themselves America's “first line of defense” against Communism. This account shows how the American Federation of Labor ...
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Between the Great War and Pearl Harbor, conservative labor leaders declared themselves America's “first line of defense” against Communism. This account shows how the American Federation of Labor (AFL) fanned popular anticommunism but defended Communists' civil liberties in the aftermath of the 1919 Red Scare. The AFL's “commonsense anticommunism,” it argues, steered a middle course between the American Legion and the American Civil Liberties Union, helping to check campaigns for federal sedition laws. But in the 1930s, frustration with the New Deal order led labor conservatives to redbait the Roosevelt administration and liberal unionists, and abandon their reluctant civil libertarianism for red scare politics. That frustration contributed to the legal architecture of federal anticommunism that culminated with the McCarthyist fervor of the 1950s. Relying on untapped archival sources, the author reveals how labor conservatives and the emerging civil liberties movement debated the proper role of the state in policing radicals and grappled with the challenges to the existing political order posed by Communist organizers. Surprising conclusions about familiar figures, such as J. Edgar Hoover, and unfamiliar episodes, like a German plot to disrupt American munitions manufacture, make her story a fresh retelling of the interwar years.Less

Commonsense Anticommunism : Labor and Civil Liberties between the World Wars

Jennifer Luff

Published in print: 2012-05-21

Between the Great War and Pearl Harbor, conservative labor leaders declared themselves America's “first line of defense” against Communism. This account shows how the American Federation of Labor (AFL) fanned popular anticommunism but defended Communists' civil liberties in the aftermath of the 1919 Red Scare. The AFL's “commonsense anticommunism,” it argues, steered a middle course between the American Legion and the American Civil Liberties Union, helping to check campaigns for federal sedition laws. But in the 1930s, frustration with the New Deal order led labor conservatives to redbait the Roosevelt administration and liberal unionists, and abandon their reluctant civil libertarianism for red scare politics. That frustration contributed to the legal architecture of federal anticommunism that culminated with the McCarthyist fervor of the 1950s. Relying on untapped archival sources, the author reveals how labor conservatives and the emerging civil liberties movement debated the proper role of the state in policing radicals and grappled with the challenges to the existing political order posed by Communist organizers. Surprising conclusions about familiar figures, such as J. Edgar Hoover, and unfamiliar episodes, like a German plot to disrupt American munitions manufacture, make her story a fresh retelling of the interwar years.

This book chronicles how the concept of organizing people to serve economic ends emerged in early modern and colonial India. It examines rules of cooperation, why people decided to join forces, how ...
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This book chronicles how the concept of organizing people to serve economic ends emerged in early modern and colonial India. It examines rules of cooperation, why people decided to join forces, how disputes were settled, and how cooperative communities became increasingly unstable in more modern times. It focuses on five dimensions: actor, agent, time, purpose, and region. The leading actors are peasants, labourers, artisans, merchants/bankers, and the states. The rules of cooperation that formed inside communities of merchants and others were respected by the states. However, these rules would eventually become unstable due to the integration of India within a global-industrial economy and the introduction of a new rule of law in the old guise of ‘custom’. As a result, the endogamous guild, a kind of collective that used marriage rules to secure cooperative ties, became weaker, to be supplanted by other forms of organization. Collectives controlled property, managed resources, supplied training, and conducted negotiations. The regional angle is important because regions differed on the composition of enterprise, and globalization and colonialism unfolded unevenly across space. The book presents an economic history of institutional change in South Asia.Less

Company of Kinsmen : Enterprise and Community in South Asian History 1700-1940

Tirthankar Roy

Published in print: 2010-03-25

This book chronicles how the concept of organizing people to serve economic ends emerged in early modern and colonial India. It examines rules of cooperation, why people decided to join forces, how disputes were settled, and how cooperative communities became increasingly unstable in more modern times. It focuses on five dimensions: actor, agent, time, purpose, and region. The leading actors are peasants, labourers, artisans, merchants/bankers, and the states. The rules of cooperation that formed inside communities of merchants and others were respected by the states. However, these rules would eventually become unstable due to the integration of India within a global-industrial economy and the introduction of a new rule of law in the old guise of ‘custom’. As a result, the endogamous guild, a kind of collective that used marriage rules to secure cooperative ties, became weaker, to be supplanted by other forms of organization. Collectives controlled property, managed resources, supplied training, and conducted negotiations. The regional angle is important because regions differed on the composition of enterprise, and globalization and colonialism unfolded unevenly across space. The book presents an economic history of institutional change in South Asia.

This book overturns nostalgic stereotypes of antiquated storekeepers, suggesting that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century grocers were important but unsung innovators of business models and ...
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This book overturns nostalgic stereotypes of antiquated storekeepers, suggesting that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century grocers were important but unsung innovators of business models and retail technologies that fostered the rise of contemporary retailing. They wrestled with fundamental changes in the structures of retailing and commercial capitalism, including the development of mass production, distribution, and marketing; the growth of regional and national markets; the emergence of new organizational and business methods; and the introduction of retail technologies such as the cash register. Yet today we know very little about the considerable achievements of small businessmen and their corner stores and even less about their major contributions to the making of “modern” commercial enterprise in the United States. Combining the archival sources and storekeepers’ stories along with sales records, credit reports, and legislative efforts, the book explores how evolving commercial, legal, and social institutions changed the course and development of the grocery trade. This story is told through grocers’ eyes, illuminating the day-to-day problems, challenges, and tasks associated with running small businesses and showing how local retailers made possible a national grocery trade.Less

Cornering the Market : Independent Grocers and Innovation in American Small Business

Susan V. Spellman

Published in print: 2016-05-01

This book overturns nostalgic stereotypes of antiquated storekeepers, suggesting that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century grocers were important but unsung innovators of business models and retail technologies that fostered the rise of contemporary retailing. They wrestled with fundamental changes in the structures of retailing and commercial capitalism, including the development of mass production, distribution, and marketing; the growth of regional and national markets; the emergence of new organizational and business methods; and the introduction of retail technologies such as the cash register. Yet today we know very little about the considerable achievements of small businessmen and their corner stores and even less about their major contributions to the making of “modern” commercial enterprise in the United States. Combining the archival sources and storekeepers’ stories along with sales records, credit reports, and legislative efforts, the book explores how evolving commercial, legal, and social institutions changed the course and development of the grocery trade. This story is told through grocers’ eyes, illuminating the day-to-day problems, challenges, and tasks associated with running small businesses and showing how local retailers made possible a national grocery trade.